In 2009 I visited my brother in London and had the privaledge to sit in the pilot seatof an operational Lancaster owned by a wWWII air museum. I was told it was one of many that took part in the dam buster missions. It was also The Lanc that flew over the recent Royal Wedding. I beleive the nose art was a Grim Reaper. What an honor. I'm glad I did this at an older age as I certainly appreciate the importance and history even more. Robert

My father who died in 1945 was an engine fitter at RAF Hullavington in Wiltshire and worked on Lancasters. I am moved to see the dedication of the brothers to get the Lanc to its present condition. Good luck to them.

Besides the Lanc in Britian there is one other flying Lanc in the world and it is just 35 miles down the road from me! It is the Mynarski Memorial in Hamilton Ontario, Canada. Located at the Canadian War Heritage Museum and has been flying for years.

In England we have the CAA, better known as the "Campaign Against Aviation" which have seen many an ancient war bird kept grounded throught too much red tape and consequential high cost. PA747 the BoB Memorial Flight's Lancaster belongs, I suppose to the RAF who are not beholden to the CAA but their own system of certifying flight worthiness of their aircraft. The CAA will treat this Lancaster as a commercial aircraft and no concessions will be made for its age or hoistorical importance. My mother worked on Lancasters at Avro's in Msnchester from 1943 and used to tell me about the ground test of these mighty aircraft.

I forwarded the link to our 'Lancaster Bomber Museum'..figuring they may know about it already.. I got this Reply back !Hello Jerry:Thanks for your e-mail with the BBC news item. The two "pensioners" restoring their Lancaster at East Kirkby. We have known about their intentions to do this for some time. We have supplied them with some spare undercarriage parts, etc. to assist in their restoration of Lancaster "Just Jane." They have also helped us with Lancaster parts. The Panton brothers, Fred and Harold, are indeed pensioners, but also are multimillionaires! Their company has a contract to supply all the McDonalds fast food outlets in the UK with the chicken meat used.

Sorry guys, finger trouble, hit the Ctrl button and posted the last message before I had completed it. I was going to say that like Gudseeds I thought there must be some form of finance available. So maybe they don't need any help on the finance front.I wish them well with the project and thank them for preserving a memorial to those who flew and all too often died in Bomber Command. But ultimately the question must be asked is what will happen to the lanc when the brothers are no longer able to look after it?

Lancasters by the thousands were stored in dry Alberta Canada after the war. A few years later, when it was obvious that the Lancs were obsolete, the Canadian government sold them to the local farmers for about $500 per airplane. Today, old Lancaster parts can be found everywhere in the form of farmyard pig troughs (made from fuel tanks), barns (with wired lighting) and endless other farm necessities of the locals.

Stuart..check out http://www.bombercommandmuseum.ca/#index_home3 They have a lot of info on their website..and the one they are Restoring, was Towed across many Km of Fields from a farmer to get it to Nanton ! Stop In if you are ever driving through !

Stuart - drive a little south to the Alberta town of Lethbridge. There, just south of town near highway 4 you will find a restored Lanc sitting in a hanger/building on the side of the road. Although there is no airport nearby, once a year in the Fall the owners will pull the airplane out of the building to run up it's engines. Here you should find much about the many local Lancasters sold for parts in this area.